Six months ago, I tried to merge two PDFs for a client proposal.
ilovepdf asked me to sign up. Smallpdf told me I'd hit my daily limit. Adobe wanted $20/month.
To merge. Two. Files.
That frustration turned into TryMyPdf — 20 completely free PDF tools, no account, no watermarks, files auto-deleted in 1 hour.
Here's the honest story of building it, the technical decisions I made, and what surprised me along the way.
What I Built
20 tools covering everything most people actually need:
Organise: Merge PDF, Compress PDF, Split PDF, Rotate PDF, Reorder Pages, Delete Pages, Resize PDF
Convert: JPG ↔ PDF, Word ↔ PDF, Excel ↔ PDF, PDF → PowerPoint, PDF → Text
Edit & Protect: Watermark, Password Protect, Unlock, Add Page Numbers, Header & Footer
All free. No limits. No account.
Tech Stack
Framework: Next.js (App Router)
Deployment: Vercel
PDF Processing: Server-side only — files never touch the client for sensitive operations
Storage: None — files are processed and immediately queued for deletion
I chose Next.js because:
The Hardest Technical Problem: File Deletion
The promise "files auto-deleted in 1 hour" sounds simple. It isn't.
Vercel functions are stateless — you can't run a background cron job inside a function. My solution:
// After processing, store deletion timestamp
await redis.set(`delete:${fileId}`, Date.now() + 3600000, { ex: 3600 });
// Vercel Cron runs every 15 minutes
// /api/cleanup/route.js
export async function GET() {
const keys = await redis.keys('delete:*');
const now = Date.now();
for (const key of keys) {
const deleteAt = await redis.get(key);
if (now >= deleteAt) {
const fileId = key.replace('delete:', '');
await deleteFromStorage(fileId);
await redis.del(key);
}
}
}
Files are gone within 15 minutes of the 1-hour mark. Not perfect, but honest.
What I Got Wrong First
Mistake 1: Client-side PDF processing
My first instinct was to process PDFs in the browser using pdf-lib. It worked for small files. For anything over 5MB, the browser tab would freeze or crash.
Moving to server-side processing fixed this — most tools now handle files up to 20MB without breaking a sweat.
Mistake 2: No progress indication
Early users thought the tool had crashed during compression. It hadn't — it was just working silently. Adding a simple progress bar reduced "is this broken?" support messages to zero.
Mistake 3: Assuming mobile users wouldn't use it
About 35% of my traffic is mobile. PDF tools on mobile are a nightmare with most services. Making the upload flow thumb-friendly was worth the extra week of work.
The Competitive Landscape
The PDF tool space looks crowded. But look closer:
The gap is real. People are genuinely frustrated with the incumbents.
What's Next
A few things I'm working on:
Lessons for Other Indie Hackers
Try It
👉 trymypdf.com
Also launched today on Product Hunt — would love your support: Product Hunt Launch
What PDF tool would you want added next? Drop it in the comments — I read everything.
More...
ilovepdf asked me to sign up. Smallpdf told me I'd hit my daily limit. Adobe wanted $20/month.
To merge. Two. Files.
That frustration turned into TryMyPdf — 20 completely free PDF tools, no account, no watermarks, files auto-deleted in 1 hour.
Here's the honest story of building it, the technical decisions I made, and what surprised me along the way.
What I Built
20 tools covering everything most people actually need:
Organise: Merge PDF, Compress PDF, Split PDF, Rotate PDF, Reorder Pages, Delete Pages, Resize PDF
Convert: JPG ↔ PDF, Word ↔ PDF, Excel ↔ PDF, PDF → PowerPoint, PDF → Text
Edit & Protect: Watermark, Password Protect, Unlock, Add Page Numbers, Header & Footer
All free. No limits. No account.
Tech Stack
Framework: Next.js (App Router)
Deployment: Vercel
PDF Processing: Server-side only — files never touch the client for sensitive operations
Storage: None — files are processed and immediately queued for deletion
I chose Next.js because:
- API routes made it easy to handle file processing server-side
- Vercel deployment is seamless
- The App Router made it simple to build fast, SEO-friendly tool pages
The Hardest Technical Problem: File Deletion
The promise "files auto-deleted in 1 hour" sounds simple. It isn't.
Vercel functions are stateless — you can't run a background cron job inside a function. My solution:
// After processing, store deletion timestamp
await redis.set(`delete:${fileId}`, Date.now() + 3600000, { ex: 3600 });
// Vercel Cron runs every 15 minutes
// /api/cleanup/route.js
export async function GET() {
const keys = await redis.keys('delete:*');
const now = Date.now();
for (const key of keys) {
const deleteAt = await redis.get(key);
if (now >= deleteAt) {
const fileId = key.replace('delete:', '');
await deleteFromStorage(fileId);
await redis.del(key);
}
}
}
Files are gone within 15 minutes of the 1-hour mark. Not perfect, but honest.
What I Got Wrong First
Mistake 1: Client-side PDF processing
My first instinct was to process PDFs in the browser using pdf-lib. It worked for small files. For anything over 5MB, the browser tab would freeze or crash.
Moving to server-side processing fixed this — most tools now handle files up to 20MB without breaking a sweat.
Mistake 2: No progress indication
Early users thought the tool had crashed during compression. It hadn't — it was just working silently. Adding a simple progress bar reduced "is this broken?" support messages to zero.
Mistake 3: Assuming mobile users wouldn't use it
About 35% of my traffic is mobile. PDF tools on mobile are a nightmare with most services. Making the upload flow thumb-friendly was worth the extra week of work.
The Competitive Landscape
The PDF tool space looks crowded. But look closer:
| ilovepdf | 2 tasks/hour | No | No |
| smallpdf | 2 tasks/day | Yes | Yes (free tier) |
| Adobe Acrobat | Very limited | Yes | Yes |
| TryMyPdf | Unlimited | No | No |
The gap is real. People are genuinely frustrated with the incumbents.
What's Next
A few things I'm working on:
- OCR support — extracting text from scanned PDFs
- Batch processing — apply the same operation to multiple files at once
- API access — for developers who want to integrate PDF tools into their own apps
Lessons for Other Indie Hackers
- Scratch your own itch — I built this because I was frustrated. That clarity helped me stay focused on what actually matters.
- Ship fast, then iterate — The first version had 8 tools. I shipped it. Then added more based on what people actually asked for.
- Privacy is a feature — "Files auto-deleted in 1 hour" is in the headline of every page. It converts skeptical users. Don't bury your privacy story.
- Free works as a model if you plan for it — I'm not monetizing yet. But I'm building trust and traffic first. That's the plan.
Try It
👉 trymypdf.com
Also launched today on Product Hunt — would love your support: Product Hunt Launch
What PDF tool would you want added next? Drop it in the comments — I read everything.
More...